Conor Grennan was unwilling to be a volunteer(志愿者). The 29-year-old American was not sure if he had the skills or a strong feeling for it.However, he went to work at an orphanage(孤儿院) in Nepal. His first thought was to make people impressed.

    "I thought that if I volunteered just once. I could retell the story over and over," Grennan said in a Huffington Post article.However, his three-month stay it the orphanage turned into in unusual experience. It was 2004 and Grennan had given up his job to begin a year-long around-the-world trip, His first three months were spent in Nepal.

    When he arrived in the village, he knew nothing about the children or the local culture. When he opened the gate of the Little Princes Children's Home, he was faced by the excited children.

    The young American ended up caring for 18 children. He later discovered that they were trafficked(被拐卖的)children. So he walked through the mountains with great difficulty to find the kids' families, "I started walking with photos of the kids." he told the Reuters reporter. "I would show up in villages and show photographs around. I went with 24 photos, and I found 24 families." At the same time, he put his heart into Nepalese culture.

    Grennan said, “Volunteering is the single best way to see how the rest of the world lives.”

    He also encouraged others to do what he had done. He believes that volunteering needs only making decisions to show up.

    Grennan's fight against child-trafficking has changed him. His book, Little Prince, came out last week.

    Aging brings wrinkles, sagging bodies and frustrating forgetfulness. But getting older is not all bad for many people. Mounting evidence suggests aging may be a key to happiness. There is conflicting research on the subject, however, and experts say it may all boil down to this: Attitude is everything.

    Older adults tend to be more optimistic and have a more positive outlook on life than their younger and stressed opposites. The big question is why seniors are happier. A recent study suggests one reason: Older adults remember the past through happy memories. Aging can bring more cheer as people become more comfortable with themselves and their roles in society. The older adults said they were enjoying more time with their family, spending more time on hobbies and having greater financial security and did not have to work.

    But others are doubtful about the link between happiness and growing older.

    "The notion that those in old age are happiest is misleading," said Richard Easterlin, a professor of economics at the University of Southern California. "It is based on comparing people of different ages who are the same in terms of income, health, family life." Easterlin added, "When you take account of the fact that older people have lower income than younger, are less healthy, and more likely to be living alone, then you will find it hard to accept that they are happier.

    In fact, scientists have found that as people age, their health declines and social networks disappear as their friends die, which can make the elderly less happy.

    Even if one does give in to age's dark side, health and happiness don't always go hand-in-hand. It's all about attitude. Research by the University of Chicago's Yang suggests that attitude about life and happiness, is partly shaped by the era in which a person was born. It turns out that individuals who adapt the best to changes also have the highest expected levels of happiness.

 Despite the conflicting findings about aging and happiness, the good news is that there doesn't appear to be a limit to how much happiness one can achieve in one's life. “Most people desire happiness,” Easterlin said. “To my knowledge, no one has identified a limit to attainable happiness.”

    Dear Student of Star Middle School:

    As your student council president, I am writing to ask for your support to start the Count-Your-Steps walking program. Mr. Stewart Thomas, a parent of two students at Star Middle School, firstly came up with the idea. Mr. Thomas is a fan of walking and wants to encourage others to appreciate the activity. He shared his idea with our principal, Ms. Howser, who immediately agreed that we should try it.

    Ms. Howser contacted the other middle schools in the district, and all the teachers eagerly adopted the program. Now a team of Count-Your-Steps organizers made up of representatives from the middle schools, has established the program's goal: to increase awareness of the benefits of walking. Organizers want middle school students to accept this challenge and make walking one of their daily activities.

    The program has clear guidelines. Interested participants must only commit to recording the number of steps taken daily. Ms. Earley, the assistant principal, will give each of us a log for recording our steps and a pedometer, which is a small, digital tool used to count the steps of the person wearing it. All participants need to do each day is to wear the pedometer, walk as much as possible, and then record the number of steps in our logs. Clearly, the process is simple and convenient.

    While the benefits of walking are multiple, this challenge offers all who participate the opportunity to work together, achieve success, and make positive changes. Remember that the other schools in the district are signed up for the Count-Your-Steps too, and each one will try to take more steps than our school. I hope many will agree to this challenge and show everyone the Star Middle School Cougar Spirit.

    Please take into careful consideration this valuable and well-planned program, and then sign up today! In the words of Mr. Thomas, “Together we can enjoy the advantages of walking.”

    Sincerely,

    Cora Jeffries

    Whether in the home or the workplace, social robots are going to become more common in the next few years. Social robots are about to bring technology to the everyday world in a more humanized way, said Cynthia Breazeal, chief scientist at the robot company Jibo.

    While household robots today do the normal housework, social robots will be much more like partners than tools. For example, these robots will be able to tell when someone is happy or sad. This allows them to respond more properly to the user.

    The Jibo robot, arranged to ship later this year, is designed to be a personalized assistant. You can talk to the robot, ask it questions, and make requests for it to perform different tasks. The robot doesn't just give general answers to questions; it responds based on what it learns about each person in the household. It can do things such as reminding an elderly family member to take medicine or taking family photos.

    Social robots are not just finding their way into the home. They have potential(潜在的) applications in everything from education to health care and are already finding their way into some of these areas.

    Fellow Robots is one company bringing social robots to the market. The company's “Oshbot” robot is built to assist customers in a store, which can help the customers find items and help guide them to the product's location in the store. It can also speak different languages and make recommendations for different items based on what the customer is shopping for.

    The more interaction the robot has with humans, the more it learns. But Oshbot, like other social robots, is not aimed to replace workers, but to work together with other employees. “We have technologies to train social robots to do things not for us, but with us,” said Breazeal.

    Researchers have been investigating for years the ways in which screens affect the quality of a person's reading. The magazine Scientific American reported that at least 100 studies have been published on the issue since the 1980s.

    Virginia Clinton carried out a research examination. She is a professor of Education, Health and Behavior at the University of North Dakota. She found what she called a "small but significant" difference in reading text from screen versus paper.

    Clinton looked at 33 past studies that examined paper versus screen reading. All of the studies were done between 2008 and 2018. The studies collectively had 2,799 study subjects, including both children and adults. Clinton's examination found that reading from paper generally led to better understanding and improved a person's performance on tests connected to the reading material. And, she found no major differences in reading speed between the two.

    Clinton and other researchers have found screen readers often believe they understand a text better than they really do. And, they are more likely than paper readers to overestimate how well they would do on a test of the materials they have read.

    Yet, this overestimated sense of understanding is especially common among screen readers. Clinton said, "There are many possible reasons for such findings. Overconfidence of reen readers, for example, could be the result of a distracted, less focused mind. Readers' preferences are also important. Research shows the majority of people of all ages prefer reading from paper. If you are enjoying the reading process, you're going to be more involved. You're going to be paying better attention. Preferences are a key issue here."

    Several studies have found that people often think of paper materials as something more important and serious. "If you are reading from paper, your mind thinks this is something important. I need to pay attention to it," Clinton said.

A significant proportion of the American populace within the working-age demographic are encountering challenges in meeting the financial demands associated with health care, as per a recent comprehensive evaluation. This study, which is the inaugural edition of the Health Care Affordability Survey conducted by the Commonwealth Fund, reveals that a substantial 51 percent of adults falling within the age bracket of 19 to 64 years have expressed that affording health care for themselves and their family is either exceedingly challenging or moderately difficult. This observation encompasses 43 percent of individuals who are beneficiaries of health insurance provided by their employers and an even higher 57 percent who have secured health insurance through a marketplace or have opted for an individual plan.

Additionally, it is noteworthy that nearly one-half of the working-age adults who are under the Medicare program and 45 percent of those who are recipients of Medicaid also admit to facing hardships in covering their health care expenses. It is particularly striking that a majority, specifically 65 percent, of working-age adults have indicated that the escalation in the cost of various goods and services over the past year has had a detrimental impact on their capacity or that of their family to manage health care expenses.

The aforementioned survey, which is based on a sample that is representative of the nation and comprises nearly 7,900 individuals who are 19 years of age or older, was carried out from the mid-point of April through the month of July in the current year. This survey follows on the heels of another analysis conducted by the research entity known as KFF, which demonstrated an upward trend in the costs associated with health insurance for employer-sponsored plans as well as an increase in the contributions made by workers towards these plans in the year 2023.

The newly disseminated analysis has further unearthed that 38 percent of the individuals who participated in the survey identified cost as the primary factor that led them or a family member to either forgo or postpone the receipt of necessary health care services or the procurement of prescribed medication within the last 12 months. This includes 29 percent of those who are under the protection of employer-based coverage, 37 percent who are insured through individual and marketplace health plans, 42 percent who are covered by Medicare, and 39 percent who are recipients of Medicaid.

Furthermore, it is observed that more than six-tenths of the individuals who are devoid of any form of health insurance have reported that they or a family member have had to delay or forgo medical care due to financial constraints. Among all those who have reported such instances of skipping or delaying care, a considerable 57 percent have stated that a health issue has consequently deteriorated.